


A Hard Day's Night

by the_girl_that_time_forgot



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 20:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6921157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_girl_that_time_forgot/pseuds/the_girl_that_time_forgot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So… this is a story written for Tumblr Classic Who Secret Santa, the prompt was: The TARDIS translation circuits break down completely, the Doctor can’t speak English and no one else can speak Gallifreyan :)</p><p>The story is situated after The Terror of the Zygons. The Doctor and Sarah talked Harry Sullivan into going on a little holiday with them… And of course things didn’t go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hard Day's Night

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry for any grammar, spelling or punctuation errors, English is not my first language and this is actually my first fanfiction ever... I did my best, hope you'd like it :)

‘Watch out for the laser guns!’

'Not this door, that one!’

'They’re getting closer!’

'Why are they even shooting at us?’

'Oh, we may have just slightly contributed to the disruption of their socio-economic system by locking up their king, almost burning those weird monks’ citadel and introducing an apple tax… Where did they get all these apples from, I wonder...’

'We’ll worry about that later, Doctor! Now we’ve reached a dead end!’

'Nonsense, Harry, why do you always have to be such a pessimistic- We’ve reached a dead end! Come on, back through that lock!’

'Doctor, you promised me holidays on a beach and it was the only reason why I decided to come with you two-’

'Doctor, I can see the Tardis!’

'Well done, Sarah! Watch and learn, Harry, this is the right attitude! No nonsense talking, just seek-locate-dest... no, no, that’s not how it should... All right, see? We’re inside and we’re dematerializing, safe and sound, so please, Harry, stop being such a tiresome child. Enjoy the life, the thrill of adventure-’

'These flickering lights and the smoke from the console... should they also be a reason of my joy?’

'Yes, Doctor, Harry’s right, this smoke can’t be any good here, can it?’

'What smoke? Aaaah, that one… Well, it’s probably just a minor technical issue. Nothing to worry about. Or there is something happening in the Vortex... Sarah, keep these buttons pressed for me, will you? There’s a good girl! Harry, when I say 'now’, pull the lever over there...’

'The lights are gone! I can’t see anything!’

'What is the matter with you, Harry, just feel it and PULL IT NOW!’

Then there was a loud explosion.

***  
Sarah was the first to wake up. She felt a nauseating pain in her stomach but she wasn’t hurt otherwise. Managing to stand up occured to be not as difficult as she thought it would. She looked around, slowly, in the dim light of the console room... Console room... The Tardis! Doctor! Harry! Memories of the moments before she had passed out came back and Sarah started to look for her friends, trying to ignore the panic creeping slowly upon her. Finally she spotted them both laying under the fallen hatstand and pile of coats. Sighing with relief, Sarah proceeded to check them up. Harry was awake already, just shocked a little bit... Poor man, she thought, we really meant to take him on holidays.

'You all right, Harry?’

'Will be, in a minute... What happened?’

'I don’t know... something blew up. Help me with the Doctor, he’s still unconscius.’

Harry looked at the Doctor laying just beside him. 'No visible bleeding and nothing broken.’ he said after a while of careful examination.

'Then why is he still unconscius?’ Sarah asked, starting to feel tears in her eyes.

'Don’t worry Sarah, he’ll come around... he can’t leave us here like that. Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?’

'Arden hask ferialsen smotter devonaa’ the Doctor replied, with his eyes suddenly open and big grin on his face. Then he stood up quickly, dusted himself off, put his hat on and went to the damaged console. He tried setting some coordinates and manipulating the usual buttons and levers to make the Tardis dematerialize, but nothing happened. 

'Hertesskant ventorden morana plo kentuskar e tvo farintas menterek sevonna maat’ he said, pushing a few other buttons and trying to do something with the cables hanging loose from the left side of the console.

Harry and Sarah looked at each other with confusion. 'Doctor, we don’t understand what you’re saying!’ Sarah exclaimed nervously.

'Not that it’s easier when he speaks English…” Harry murmured, but even he started to feel that something was wrong.

'Meno sperra mantisken e fota-’ the Doctor said, but then he turned round to face his companions with mouth wide open and confusion in his eyes. 'Vent korun me stokena?’ he asked eventually.

Harry turned to Sarah. 'Is he playing with us or can’t he really speak English now?’

'I don’t think he’s pretending. Look at him, Harry, he seems to be as much shocked as we are!’ Sarah replied.

The Doctor said a few more strangely sounding words, pointing at the console and doing this talking-sock-puppet hand-move.

'Oh, I know what is it!’ Sarah said, clearly relieved. 'The translation circuit must have gone bad during this explosion. That’s why we can’t communicate – the Doctor is probably speaking Gallifreyan language now. He just needs to fix some cables in the Tardis’ she added with a small smile.

'But does he have all the parts and equipment required?’ Harry wondered. The Doctor was obviously thinking the same, judging from the deep frown on his face and head scratching with the sonic screwdriver.

'Well, we can’t help him much now, anyway. We have to wait and see.’ Sarah sighed, remembering that the Doctor’s previous attempts at fixing things in the Tardis were succesfull in about… half of the cases. She decided not to tell Harry about it.

They both sat under one of the walls of the room and watched the Doctor tampering with the console, pulling more and more cables out and talking to himself in this strange language of his. Sarah noticed that Harry seemed uneasy, with his eyes fixed on the pile of stuff ripped out from the console, which was getting bigger and bigger. She wanted to distract him (and herself, too) from these gloomy thoughts about being stuck in the non-working Tardis, and she came up with an idea.

'Come on, Harry, let’s have some fun while waiting’ she said, smiling.

'What do you mean?’

'We used to play this game during school trips, to pass the time’ Sarah answerd. 'I start with singing a few lines of a song. Then you have to sing a bit of another song, which you associate somehow with my song. And then it’s my turn and so on’.

Harry didn’t seem excited about this idea, but he agreed. So Sarah stared with the first song that came to her mind, without thinking much about it:

'It’s been a hard day’s night and I’ve been workin’ like a dog…’ (1)

The Doctor emerged suddenly from under the console and said something in an offended tone.

Harry laughed. 'It looks like he recognized the tune’, he said, still smiling.

Sarah smiled too and replied only: 'Your turn’.

Harry thought for a while and then sang:

'Baby, back, dressed in black, silver buttons all down her back, high hose, tippy toes, she broke the needle and she can sew, walking the dog, I’m just a walking the dog…’ (2)

'Yeah, good one’ Sarah said with a mischevious grin and then sang as loud as she could:

'SHE LOVES YOU, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, SHE LOVES YOU, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, SHE LOVES YOU, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH-’ (3)

Harry was laughing again.

'ANKERMETTA SURRINE, TALKA!” came the angry answer from under the console.

'Did you hear something, Harry?’ asked Sarah ostentatiously.

'No, I don’t think so.’

'Good, then let’s continue.’ Harry was a lot happier now, she didn’t want to lose that.

'You can’t hurry love, no, you just have to wait, she said love don’t come easy, it’s a game of give and take’ (4) Harry attacked.

'BOOORN TO BE WIIIIIIIIILD’ (5), Sarah answerd immidiately, and then they sang it again together, more in a laughing than singing way. Sarah was wiping tears from her face when she saw the Doctor approaching them with a silver hammer-like tool in his hand.

'I’m sorry Doctor, we’ll be quiet now’ she said, struggling to keep a straight face. She could hear Harry still gigling behind her. The Doctor looked at them, didn’t say any word, handed her the tool and led her to the console.

'The game is over, I fear’ Sarah said, turning to see Harry and pulling a funny face behind the Doctor’s back.

'Yes, it seems so’ Harry answered. He then winked at her and hummed quietly under his breath 'Strawberry fields forever...’ (6)

Sarah chuckled, thinking about wild strawberries.

She spent the next few hours under the console, helping the Doctor when he needed third or even fourth hand to keep some parts together or to use tools on them. She found out that words weren’t necessary to understand what the Doctor wanted her to do. Well, in most cases. Once she tried to cut off the fuel line. Obviously the Doctor wasn’t happy about that.

Harry got his job, too. The Doctor pulled out from the console something resembling a large black box and told Harry with gestures to take it to pieces.

Finally most bits of the console which had been laying on the ground turned back to their rightful places, or at least Sarah hoped so. The Doctor pushed some buttons, adjusted some winders, pushed more buttons and then said, still in an offended tone 'Well I hope you had much fun when I was struggling with repairing my Old Girl so I could bring you home or wherever else!’

'Doctor, you’ve made it!’ Sarah exclaimed. 'You’ve got the translation circuit working!’ 

'Working like a dog, eh?’ he replied, still holding grudge. Or pretending to.

'Come on, Doctor, I didn’t mean anything by it; it was just a game to pass the time’ Sarah replied. Then she risked a hug. The Doctor sighed, briefly hugged her back and finally smiled. 'All right then, let’s find out if we can dematerialize the Tardis as well’ he said, his hands already on the console, pushing, pulling and adjusting. Thankfully, they heard this familiar whizzing sound and saw the central column moving slowly. Sarah squeezed the Doctor’s hand and turned to Harry. 'See, everything’s fine. We can go to that beach now. Rigth, Doctor?’

'Of course we can! Harry, put your toys back and come here.’

Harry looked at them over his almost disassembled box. 'Toys…? TOYS? What was I doing all of this for, then?’ he asked, surprised and annoyed.

'Oh, I just had to keep you both occupied so you’d stop distracting me with your shouting and poor singing’ the Doctor answered casually.

'But why could Sarah help you, while I was… what was I really doing? What is this box?’

'A broken toaster from XXIII century.’

'A... broken... toaster...’

'Come on, Harry, stop babbling and think of your promised holidays. We’re almost there... Why are you so red on your face?’

'Harry, it’s just the Doctor, leave it’ Sarah said, taking Harry’s arm and leading him away from the Doctor. 'Let’s go to the wardrobe and find some swimming costumes...’

'I liked him better when that circuit was broken’ Harry murmured, loudly enough for the Doctor to hear him. Then he sang:

'People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening...’ (7)

before ducking when a knee-high boot came flying his way.

**Author's Note:**

> (1) 'A Hard Day’s Night’, The Beatles
> 
> (2) 'Walking The Dog’, The Rolling Stones
> 
> (3) 'She Loves You’, The Beatles
> 
> (4) 'You Can’t Hurry Love’, The Supremes
> 
> (5) 'Born To Be Wild’, Steppenwolf
> 
> (6) 'Strawberry Fields Forever’, The Beatles
> 
> (7) 'The Sound of Silence’, Simon & Garfunkel


End file.
